The Snow Tiger / Night of Error (43 page)

I looked around blankly. ‘I don’t know anyone in Panama.’

Campbell looked up at the waiter. ‘An old lady or a young lady?’

‘Oh, a young lady, sir.’

Campbell’s eyes twinkled. ‘If I were you I’d be in the foyer now. What’s stopping you?’

I got up. ‘It’s probably a mistake,’ I said, thinking that it almost certainly wasn’t. ‘Excuse me.’

There were several people in the foyer including more than one young lady, but no one approached me. I crossed to the desk and said, ‘My name’s Trevelyan. I understand someone wants me.’

The clerk pointed with his pen, indicating that I should come into the office behind the desk. The young lady was waiting all right, and I did know her, in a way; she was the singer who had been entertaining us in the lounge.

‘I’m Trevelyan. You wanted to speak to me?’

She was nervous, I could see that. She was rather slight and looked, at close quarters, a trifle undernourished, with hollows under her dark eyes and a skin more weathered than tanned. There was an appealing quality about her – I think the best word would be winsome. I was intrigued.

‘I’m sorry to trouble you – I saw your name in the register – but I wondered if you were any relation of Mark Trevelyan? From Tahiti?’

‘He was my brother,’ I said. ‘I’m Michael. Obviously you – know Mark.’ I didn’t know if she knew of his death and I felt it would be unkind to throw it at her without warning.

She nodded, gripping her hands together. ‘Yes, I knew him, very well. Have you just come from England?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know his – wife?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did she get the suitcase I sent?’

I stared at her now. ‘Well, I’m damned! I thought you were a man. So you are P. Nelson.’

She smiled and some of the tension left her. ‘Yes – Paula Nelson. Then the case did arrive all right?’

‘It arrived, thank you,’ I said. I didn’t say that it had been stolen immediately afterwards because I didn’t know just where this girl stood in the complexity of Mark’s affairs. But I could try to find out.

‘Miss Nelson, what about coming into the lounge and having a drink with me and my friends? We’re all of us interested in Mark and in what he was doing out here.’

She shook her head. ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that, Mr Trevelyan. I’m one of the hired help around here – we’re not supposed to drink with the customers. The manager says this isn’t a clip joint.’ Her nervousness now seemed to include a fear of the manager’s imminent wrath.

I said gently, ‘Perhaps we could go somewhere else, if you’ve the time. I would like to talk to you.’

She looked at her watch. ‘I could spare half an hour. Then I’ve got another stint in the lounge. If you’ll wait while I get my wrap?’

‘It’ll be a pleasure.’

I thought of sending a message back to the others but decided against it. I didn’t have to account to them for all my actions. We went to a small bar a little way down the street, I bought a couple of drinks and we settled down in an alcove. The bar was deserted except for a solitary drinker. I said, ‘You’re an American, aren’t you?’

‘Yes. And you’re from – Cornwall. You talk the same way Mark did. I used to tease him about that sometimes.’

Which of course put their relationship on a firmer footing.

‘Where did you meet him?’

‘In Tahiti. I was working a little joint in Papeete. Mark used to come in with his sidekick, and we got pretty – friendly.’

‘Who was his sidekick?’

‘A Swedish guy, Sven someone. But this was, oh, maybe two years ago when we first met.’

About the time he left Campbell, I calculated. I said, ‘I’m interested in how Mark came to die. Can you tell me anything about it – if it doesn’t distress you too much.’

‘Oh, that’s all right,’ she said, but it was a tremulous voice, ‘I can’t tell you a lot. He died of appendicitis out in the Paumotus – didn’t you know that?’

‘Yes – but how did you know?’

‘I didn’t believe it at first, but they let me see the death certificate.’

‘Who are “they”? Who told you in the first place?’

‘A schooner came in with the news. And I went down to the Government bureau to see the proof. You see, I thought he might have – just – gone away.’

‘Did the doctor come to Papeete himself, the one who operated on Mark?’

She shook her head. ‘Not much point, was there? I mean, it’s over two hundred miles and he’s the only doctor out there. He wouldn’t leave just to bring the news back.’

This clashed with Kane’s story; according to him the doctor had dealt with the certificate and the authorities. Or had he? I thought back to what Kane had said – that he and his partner, Hadley, had left it all to the doctor. Perhaps it only meant sending the papers back on the next convenient transport.

I said, ‘Did you know the men on the schooner?’

She was silent for a bit and then said, ‘Why are you asking me all these questions, Mr Trevelyan?’

‘I could say out of natural interest in the death of my only brother, but I won’t,’ I said deliberately. ‘I think there’s something very odd about the whole affair.’ As I said it I suddenly wondered if she was a plant – one of the spies of Ramirez of whom Campbell so often warned me. If so I’d already dealt a hand I should rather have hidden, and I felt cold at the thought. But it was very hard to imagine this girl as a crook’s agent.

‘You think he was murdered, don’t you?’ she asked flatly.

I tightened my lips. Time for a quick decision, and I thought that I may as well continue. It was already too late to do otherwise. ‘You think so too, Miss Nelson?’

There was a long pause before she nodded. ‘Yes,’ she whispered, and started to cry. I felt better, for some reason – she was ruining her makeup, and surely no spy would do that, not just before making a public appearance?

I let her run on for a little while, then took her hand in mine.

‘You were living with Mark, weren’t you?’

‘Yes, I was. Oh God, I
loved
him,’ she said. She was so intense, her grip tightening, that I felt I must believe her.

‘Were you happy with him?’ I asked. ‘Was he good to you, Miss Nelson?’

Amazingly, a smile appeared. ‘Oh, I was. Please – don’t call me Miss Nelson. My name is Paula.’

‘And I’m Mike.’

We were silent for a few moments, then I said, ‘What really happened, Paula?’

She said, ‘I suppose it all started when Sven was killed – ‘

‘Norgaard? Killed!’

‘Yes. He was found out on the reef, outside Papeete, with his head bashed in. At first everyone thought it was the sea – it comes in with tremendous force against the reef. They thought he’d been washed off his feet and had his head smashed on the rocks. Then – I don’t know exactly how – they decided he’d been murdered. It was something to do with what the police surgeon found.’

I nodded grimly. ‘Then what happened?’

‘The police were asking questions and they came to Mark. He said he knew nothing about it, but it didn’t seem to worry him.’

I took a deep breath. ‘Paula, do you think that Mark killed Sven?’

She hesitated, then shook her head violently. ‘No, it
couldn’t
have been Mark. I know he could get very angry – even violent – but he couldn’t have killed Sven. They were partners.’

I had experienced some of Mark’s violence, in my younger days.

‘Paula, did he ever hit you?’

She looked down at the table, nodding. ‘Sometimes – but I’m hell to live with. I’m untidy and sloppy about housework. I’m – ‘ She laughed, but the laugh broke off on a sob and tears rolled down her cheeks. I was appalled.

‘What happened then?’

‘Mark ran away. He ran from the police. I don’t mean literally, not the day they spoke to him, but that night he disappeared from Tahiti. And then we heard that he was dead – I’ve already told you exactly how that was.’

‘Who brought the news of his death – in that schooner?’

‘It was a man called Hadley – he brought the news. He said that he and his partner had found Mark dying out in the islands.’ She had the look of nervousness back, and I thought that it may have been caused by her mention of Hadley.

But I had more important things to think about. This was the break – this was the evidence that showed Kane to be a downright liar. There could have been an honest mistake about the death certificate, but not about this. Kane had told me that he and Hadley had left things to the doctor. This was the crack in his story.

I said, ‘Hadley’s partner – was it a man called Kane?’

‘I don’t know, I never met him. I knew Hadley, though; he came to visit Mark often.’

‘The devil he did!’ I ejaculated. This was a new development.

‘Oh sure. Mark and Sven used to hire Hadley’s boat and go off for weeks at a time with him.’

‘You’ve no idea where they went, I suppose?’ I said casually.

‘Mark never talked to me about what he did,’ she said.

‘There’s just one more thing, but it’s very important. You said you thought Mark had been murdered. What led you to think that?’

‘It was Hadley,’ she said. ‘He came to my place and said he wanted Mark’s things. The way he talked about Mark – he was so triumphant. I didn’t see any reason why he should have Mark’s stuff so I gave him the air. He was mad about it but he couldn’t do anything then because I had friends with me. But he scared me – he’s a bad bastard. I looked at Mark’s case and there wasn’t anything there that would do me any good, so I sent it home to his wife. Mark talked about her to me.’ There was pain in her voice. ‘He talked about you too – he wasn’t very nice about you.’

‘I can imagine. Did Hadley try again?’

‘Yes. He came and beat the living daylights out of me and searched my place but of course there wasn’t anything there.’

‘You mean – he beat you up?’

‘Oh brother, you ought to have seen the shiner I had.’ She looked at me gravely. ‘You don’t know much about men like Hadley, do you?’

‘Not yet,’ I said grimly. ‘But I soon will. I’m going to catch up with that bastard.’

She laughed scornfully. ‘He’d tear you in half, Mike. Be careful of him – don’t come at him from the front, club him down from behind. He’d do the same to you. He’s an uncivilized savage.’

I looked at this girl who talked of brawls and beatings so matter-of-factly. No wonder she had that permanently shrinking air – or perhaps it was her manner which attracted violence in the first place. ‘I’ll remember that.’

She sighed. ‘Well, then I got real scared because I said too much. You know what I said? I said I had proof that he was lying – that Mark hadn’t died the way he said. He looked at me in a real funny way and said he’d be back – with friends. So I packed a few things and got out. I stayed with someone else the rest of the night and next morning there was a trading schooner leaving for Panama at five o’clock and I was aboard by four. I kept below deck until Papeete was out of sight.’

‘What was your proof, Paula?’

She said what I guessed she was going to say. ‘Mark already had his appendix out. I saw the scar. He couldn’t have died that way.’

‘I knew about that too. Mark had his appendix out years ago.’

Paula looked at her watch and jumped to her feet. She still looked ravaged but she seemed a little calmer now. ‘I have to get back.’

‘Thanks, Paula. You’ve helped me a lot. Do you think that Hadley killed Mark and Sven Norgaard?’

‘I do,’ she said intensely.

‘Have you any idea why he should?’

She shrugged. ‘No idea – but I’m sure he did it.’

‘Paula, before I leave here – will you write down what you know for me?’

‘I – I guess so, Mike. I – have to be careful.’

She wouldn’t come into the hotel lounge with me so I went in alone ahead of her and found Geordie sitting talking to Clare. ‘Pop’s gone to bed,’ she said. ‘It’s late and he gets tired.’

‘I hope Geordie’s been entertaining you all right.’

‘Oh yes, he’s been telling me more about Mark – and you.’

I said lightly, ‘I thought I felt my ears burning.’

I saw Paula join the trio. In the dim lounge lighting one could not see any trace of disarray and she began to sing in
the same pleasant, husky voice. ‘Nice voice she’s got,’ said Clare casually.

I saw they were both looking at her.

‘How was your assignation?’ asked Geordie.

‘Interesting.’

A mischievous smile played briefly on Clare’s mouth. ‘We saw you escorting her out of the foyer.’

‘Her name is P. Nelson,’ I said. Geordie choked over his coffee.

I put Clare in the picture regarding the name, then said, ‘She’s had a lot to tell me, all fascinating. She thinks that Mark was murdered, and his partner Norgaard too – oh yes, he’s dead. And she thinks they were both killed by Hadley, this mystery partner of Kane’s. But the consensus of opinion in Tahiti seems to be that Mark killed Norgaard – that’s the official police view – and that Mark died by accident while on the run. It’s a hell of a mess.’